Mclinton

COLLEGE PARK -- Don't judge him by the final sequence, when he was too tired, too confused, too overwhelmed to tie the score. Kevin McLinton is the reason Maryland remains competitive in this trying season. Kevin McLinton is the reason Maryland was in the game.All he did yesterday was score 21 of the Terps' final 27 points to rally them from a 15-point second-half deficit. If only he could have finished what he started, instead of missing an off-balance, 40-footer with one second left to seal Maryland's 87-84 loss to Florida State.

WICHITA, Kan. -- The formula for winning NCAA tournament games isn't as complicated as the hoop doctors would have you believe. You have a chance to get hot in the Big Jalapeno, or whatever we're calling it, as long as you have two items: a big man and a point guard.Consider Maryland's first-round win over Saint Louis. Sensational Freshman Joe Smith was -- what else? -- sensational, but the Terps also needed a career game from Duane Simpkins to keep from losing.The sophomore point guard missed four of seven shots and scored only seven points, so it doesn't sound like his best game, especially when he had a couple of 18-pointers during the season.

COLLEGE PARK -- There were two stars in Maryland's 93-79 win over Cal-Irvine last night, and their names weren't Walt Williams and Matt Roe.Oh sure, Williams had 21 points and six assists, and Roe had 11 points, including four free throws and an alley-oop toss for Williams down the stretch.But the night belonged to the unheralded names in Terpland, to men like Cedric Lewis and Kevin McLinton, who play the lunchpail role to the high profile presentations of Williams and Roe.Lewis came oh-so-close to his first career triple-double, scoring 21 points, pulling down 14 rebounds and blocking eight shots, all career-highs.

DURHAM, N.C. -- A year ago, Kevin McLinton nearly led the University of Maryland basketball team to what would have been the biggest upset of the season. But McLinton and the Terrapins left Cameron Indoor Stadium with a good feeling despite an agonizing two-point defeat to top-ranked Duke.Last night, McLinton came close to equaling his 25-point, 11-assist performance against the Blue Devils. But Maryland didn't. The Terps buried themselves with their largest halftime deficit of the season and lost to sixth-ranked Duke, 95-79, before a typically raucous sellout crowd of 9,314.

Is the University of Maryland's Kevin McLinton a vastly underrated basketball player? He may be.Nothing suggests this more strongly than comparing McLinton statistically with Duke's Bob Hurley.There's no question that Hurley is the king of Atlantic Coast Conference point guards. He's generally considered to be the best in the country -- if not one of the best ever.Though Hurley is only 6 feet tall and 165 pounds, NBA scouts predict he'll be an outstanding pro beginning next year.After Hurley directed Duke to a decisive 78-62 win at Maryland last Saturday, Terps coach Gary Williams reiterated his appreciation for the Blue Devil's play.

COLLEGE PARK -- There is a scene near the end of "The Godfather 3," where an ailing Michael Corleone passes the family torch onto his nephew, Vincent.Although not as dramatic, there is some of the same symbolism in injured Walt Williams turning over the leadership of the Maryland basketball team to his friend, Kevin McLinton.Williams' broken leg gives McLinton, who had shared point guard duties with the 6-foot-8 junior, a chance to run the Terps' offense, and it's an offer he can't refuse, although he'd like to."

COLLEGE PARK -- Senior Day is still nearly three month away at the University of Maryland, but Kevin McLinton and Evers Burns got a jump on the occasion last night at Cole Field House.McLinton emerged from his early-season slump to get Maryland off to a fast start, and he and Burns helped the Terrapins put away American in the second half.The result was a game-high 24 points for Burns, a season-high 22 points for McLinton and, most significantly, an impressive 98-67 romp over the Eagles. It was clearly Maryland's best performance so far this season.

COLLEGE PARK -- When University of Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams was penciling in his point guards last summer for the upcoming season, there were a bunch of question marks behind junior Walt Williams.The Terrapins had Matthew "Cougar" Downing, a junior-college player from Kansas who had been signed as insurance if Walt Williams had decided to transfer. And there was sophomore Kevin McLinton, recovering from a serious leg injury."I didn't know what to expect from Kevin," Gary Williams said this week.

COLLEGE PARK -- When Kevin McLinton came out of Monday night's game against Maryland-Eastern Shore midway through the first half, University of Maryland assistant coach Billy Hahn pulled the senior guard aside."

DURHAM, N.C. -- There are games that defy logic, games that even the most fertile imagination couldn't fathom. And then there was last night's Maryland-Duke game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It was beyond even that.A crazy season in the Atlantic Coast Conference turned even wackier, as the severely undermanned Terrapins, playing down the stretch without Walt Williams, took the top-ranked Blue Devils into the final seconds before losing, 91-89.Maryland had two chances to win. But Kevin McLinton, who had given the Terps a one-point lead with 38 seconds left, missed a running 14-footer with seven seconds to go and his team down by one. After Duke's Thomas Hill was fouled and made the first of two free throws, Maryland's Evers Burns threw away the outlet pass.

COLLEGE PARK -- Cole Field House was rocking. Clemson was reeling. And the Maryland basketball team seemed ready yesterday for its second straight come-from-behind Atlantic Coast Conference victory.But this didn't turn out to be another North Carolina State. It was more like the rest of this season's struggle through the ACC, as the Terrapins faded down the stretch and lost to the Tigers, 81-73, before a disappointed crowd of 14,380 and a national TV audience.Trailing by eight points at halftime, and by 15 early in the second half, Maryland (11-13, 2-12)

COLLEGE PARK -- The University of Maryland basketball team that beat Louisville and Oklahoma earlier this season came out of hiding last night against North Carolina State at Cole Field House.These were the Terps who had showed so much promise in December, and early January, before being overwhelmed by the rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference the past month. These were not the same Terps who had lost seven straight ACC games overall and all six at home this season.Maryland showed it was certainly not the worst team in the ACC. With the help of a 17-0 run to start the second half, the Terps knocked through the basement door, leaving hapless and tired North Carolina State behind with a 88-71 victory.

COLLEGE PARK -- This could have been a story about stirring second-half comeback by the Maryland basketball team. This could have been a story about a phenomenal second-half performance by senior guard Kevin McLinton.Instead, it's a story about No. 10 Florida State continuing its run as the Atlantic Coast Conference's hottest team. It's a story about sophomore guard Bobby Sura, one of the streakiest players in the country.McLinton's heroics ended just in time for the Seminoles. After scoring 21 points in the last eight minutes and leading the Terps back from a 15-point deficit to take the lead with less than two minutes left, McLinton's 40-footer missed with one second remaining, leaving Maryland with a heartbreaking 87-84 defeat.

COLLEGE PARK -- Don't judge him by the final sequence, when he was too tired, too confused, too overwhelmed to tie the score. Kevin McLinton is the reason Maryland remains competitive in this trying season. Kevin McLinton is the reason Maryland was in the game.All he did yesterday was score 21 of the Terps' final 27 points to rally them from a 15-point second-half deficit. If only he could have finished what he started, instead of missing an off-balance, 40-footer with one second left to seal Maryland's 87-84 loss to Florida State.

COLLEGE PARK -- Evers Burns said it best."Kevin is carrying this team right now and needs some help," the senior forward said after Maryland's 70-68 loss to Virginia on Thursday night at Cole Field House. "We've got to give him help."Kevin McLinton, who after a slow start is having a phenomenal senior year, couldn't carry the struggling Terps past the equally struggling Cavaliers. He finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers in 39 minutes.McLinton had his chances to be the hero.

COLLEGE PARK -- This was a game the Maryland basketball team needed to win. This was a game the Terrapins had a chance to win. In fact, they had three opportunities to beat Virginia last night in the final, frantic moments at Cole Field House.But Maryland missed two makeable shots and one prayer in the last 15 seconds around some poor free-throw shooting by the No. 24 Cavaliers and lost, 70-68, before a disappointed sellout crowd of 14,500. The loss, the third straight for the Terps, kept Maryland tied for last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Kevin McLinton will celebrate an anniversary of sorts today: It was here last season that he reclaimed the job as the University of Maryland's No. 1 point guard. He also hopes to be celebrating something more significant: a rare victory for the Terps at North Carolina State's Reynolds Coliseum.Having played only six games before suffering a season-ending stress fracture as a freshman, having started 17 games as a sophomore while former All-American Walt Williams recovered from a broken leg, McLinton took over again for good as a junior against the Wolfpack, scoring 19 points in a 94-88 loss.

COLLEGE PARK -- Senior Day is still nearly three month away at the University of Maryland, but Kevin McLinton and Evers Burns got a jump on the occasion last night at Cole Field House.McLinton emerged from his early-season slump to get Maryland off to a fast start, while he and Burns helped the Terrapins put away American in the second half.The result was a game-high 24 points for Burns, a season-high 22 points for McLinton and, most significantly, an impressive 98-67 romp over the Eagles.

Is the University of Maryland's Kevin McLinton a vastly underrated basketball player? He may be.Nothing suggests this more strongly than comparing McLinton statistically with Duke's Bob Hurley.There's no question that Hurley is the king of Atlantic Coast Conference point guards. He's generally considered to be the best in the country -- if not one of the best ever.Though Hurley is only 6 feet tall and 165 pounds, NBA scouts predict he'll be an outstanding pro beginning next year.After Hurley directed Duke to a decisive 78-62 win at Maryland last Saturday, Terps coach Gary Williams reiterated his appreciation for the Blue Devil's play.

CLEMSON, S.C. -- Devin Gray started last night's game on the bench and in Clemson coach Cliff Ellis' doghouse. The Maryland basketball team only wished he had stayed there.Gray, who was benched for the second half of Sunday's 18-point loss at Wake Forest for disciplinary reasons, came off of it early against the Terrapins and lifted the Tigers to an 82-72 Atlantic Coast Conference victory at Littlejohn Coliseum.With a career-high 27 points, including 16 in the second half, the 6-foot-7, 230-pound sophomore from Baltimore helped Clemson (10-5, 1-5)